A Refugee Child Has Died After Being Released From Family Detention

Update: The child died following her stay at an ICE Detention Center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children. The events took place in Dilley Family Detention Center in south Texas.

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An August 1 report from ThinkProgress, an immigrant advocacy group, states that details on this fatality, and whether or not it was detention related, are not yet available. It is also not known whether the toddler had been separated from his family under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy or not.

However, the same report says that the facility, Dilley detention center, which is operated by a private prison company, is the largest ICE detention facility, with the capacity to hold up to 2,400 women and children.

The report also says that, beginning in 2015, there have been a number of complaints of neglect or mistreatment at this immigration prison, which an ACLU attorney has described as an "internment camp".

https://thinkprogress.org/toddler-di...-863fcd5e357e/
Without in any way trying to downplay, overlook or excuse the numerous allegations of horrific abuse against immigrant detainees, including children, under the Obama administration, it is a matter o record that President Obama's administration at least tried to put some brakes on the private immigration detention system by establishing an oversight mechanism and making plans to phase out the use of private prisons.

This contrasts with the sickening corruption and profiteering connected with Trump's expansion of the abusive private immigration prison system. See: NPR.

The private immigration prison company. GEO, held a festive bash last October at one of Trump's resorts to celebrate receiving a big contract from the Trump regime.

Readers who are able to control the nausea they are likely to feel in the pit of their stomachs are welcome to read further details in the Denver Post's report:
With business booming under Trump, private prison giant gathers at president's resort

" it is a matter o record that President Obama's administration at least tried to put some brakes on the private immigration detention system by establishing an oversight mechanism and making plans to phase out the use of private prisons. "

I have provided a link above to the media report which says that President Obama's administration was at least moving in the direction of cutting back on the use of private immigration prisons and of exercising some oversight oversight over them.

Also NPR reported on February 23, 2017, when Donald Trump had been in office for only about a month, that AG Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama administration order directing the DOJ to reduce the use of private prisons

This would indicate that, far from following President Obama's policies inthis respect, Donald Trump lost no time in trying to reverse them.

Admittedly, the rescinded Obama era order directing cutbacks in the use of private prisons did not apply to DHS facilities, where most immigrants are incarcerated, and to that extent, Matt's point about the similarities between the two administrations is well taken.

But I have not seen any news reports indicating that President Obama was planning a big increase in the use of private immigration prisons, as Doland Trump has been doing, while huge amounts of money flow from that industry into his own campaign coffers

Does this mean that the Democrats have always had entirely clean hands in this area? Obviously it does not, and I am not making any such claim.

I have provided a link above to the media report which says that President Obama's administration was at least moving in the direction of cutting back on the use of private immigration prisons and of exercising some oversight oversight over them.

I have first hand professional experience that says that media report is completely inaccurate.

Do you have any hands on professional experience representing refugee children held in deportation internment camps?

I have revised and clarified my above comment based on additional news reports which I cite. President Obama was not, according to these sources planning any cutbacks in DHS immigration prisons, and I have corrected my comment accordingly.

However, I have not seen any news reports indicating that President Obama was planning to extend their use, as Donald Trump is doing in what, again based on news reports, appears to be a stomach-churning quid pro quofor campaign cash payola from the industry.

However, I have not seen any news reports indicating that President Obama was planning to extend their use, as Donald Trump is doing in what, again based on news reports, appears to be a stomach-churning quid pro quofor campaign cash payola from the industry.

Roger Algase
Attorney at Law

I have.

August 14, 2016

DILLEY, Tex. — As Central Americans surged across the U.S. border two years ago, the Obama administration skipped the standard public bidding process and agreed to a deal that offered generous terms to Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest prison company, to build a massive detention facility for women and children seeking asylum.

The four-year, $1 billion contract — details of which have not been previously disclosed — has been a boon for CCA, which, in an unusual arrangement, gets the money regardless of how many people are detained at the facility.